This is an Israeli story. How many times have you heard it? Hang on, because this story ends with a place where you are going to want to eat. In the 1970s, the Mizrachi family opened a shipudiya (restaurant that features meat skewers) in the Kerem Hatemanim section of Tel Aviv.
The father had been a butcher before he opened the restaurant, so this was the natural next step. Son Dror learned about meat from his father, and learned the restaurant business from experience. But the hospitality business was in his blood.
Fast forward 40 years, and the family patriarch has stepped aside, allowing Dror to take over the Tel Aviv restaurant. While it continued to attract customers for its renown shipudim and other excellent cuts of meat, ambitious Dror had his eyes on something bigger. And this is where Emily Grill Bar in Rishon Lezion comes in.
Emily is a classic Israeli Middle Eastern grill restaurant upgraded to 21st-century Israel. This is a large restaurant with a spacious indoor and outdoor dining area, with plenty of room for private groups and parties. We visited the establishment for lunch, which is a quiet time at Emily’s.
The restaurant starts hopping in the evening. We started our meal with an array of salads, so characteristic of a classic shipudiya. And then came the large round fresh hot Iraqi laffa bread, which just cannot be beat.
There is a full menu of meats but my carnivore companion cannot pass up shipudim (meat skewers). He chose one lamb skewer and a second bu.
